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(fte)

is a unit used in measuring the size of the workforce, either in national statistics or in the personnel records of an individual organization. An fte is either a worker employed on a full-time, standard contract or two or more workers employed on reduced hours or part-time contracts. Part-time workers may be classed as 0.75, 0.6, 0.5, 0.4, or some other fraction of a full-time equivalent depending on the hours that they usually work. The purpose of full-time equivalents, therefore, is to measure the size of the workforce, whilst controlling for the (variable) hours that individual workers are contracted to perform. A measure of workforce size based on full-time equivalents can be contrasted with a simple headcount, in which the number of employees is measured, regardless of hours worked.